Police say they are concerned a Brisbane man might be “accelerating” his behaviour, after he allegedly repeatedly fired an assault rifle, threatened multiple people in separate incidents and set a house on fire in recent days.
Queensland police have released security camera footage they allege shows Mitchell James Wilson, 27, discharging a semi-automatic weapon at a north Brisbane business on Thursday afternoon.
Police have issued an arrest warrant for Wilson. Det Supt Andrew Massingham alleged on Sunday he considered the man “armed, dangerous, irrational [and] particularly unpredictable”.
The gun allegedly used in three separate incidents on Thursday, 6 April is believed to be an AK-47 assault rifle. The first confrontation occurred at a commercial premises at Brendale in north Brisbane about 2.45pm on Thursday.
Security footage released by police shows a man, alleged to be Wilson, discharge the rifle into the concrete in the vicinity of another man.
Massingham told reporters that after Wilson allegedly arrived at the premises there was “what I would call a life-and-death struggle between the two men that lasts for some time”.
Massingham alleged that “Mr Wilson is able to regain the firearm before … discharging another shot into the ground … before leaving the scene”.
Police allege that about 8.55pm the same day, Wilson used the same firearm to threaten two women, who were known to him, at Mount Gravatt in south Brisbane.
Massingham said the women fled and heard a shot behind them. It was unclear whether the shot had been aimed “into the ground, or in their direction”.
About 20 minutes later, Wilson allegedly went to a home at Sunnybank carrying a jerry can of fuel and threatened a man with the firearm. Police said Wilson apparently went to the house seeking the location of one of the women involved in the previous incident.
He then allegedly set the home alight. The house was destroyed and a pet dog was killed.
Police have issued an arrest warrant for Wilson and have appealed for public support.
“Mr Wilson now has been on the run for two days,” they said.
“We ask if people are harbouring him to do the right thing and convince him to hand himself in to the nearest police station. We’re also asking accommodation providers, particularly on the north side of Brisbane, to check their current clients and see if Mr Wilson is seeking accommodation at any of their premises.
